


Two Princes, One Storm

by CobraOnTheCob



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky won't have his nicname until later in the fic, Healing with water, Late and I'm so sorry about that, M/M, So Buchanan will save the day, Steve must've swallowed a bunch of water and some must've gotten into his lungs, Stucky Media Mini Bang, Threw that in because I was like, could cause an infection, hydrokinesis, magical powers, other characters that don't have character tags rip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23424298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobraOnTheCob/pseuds/CobraOnTheCob
Summary: Buchanan is the Crown Prince, but he doesn't want to be the King. He wants to pass the crown to his sister, but his mother is very adamant that he takes the crown. His heart is not with the kingdom, it longs to know the surface world.A storm brings the surface and aquatic world together for a few brief moments.Two princes.One storm.One wish.Alternatively: Elements of Disney's The Little Mermaid and other non-Little Mermaid elements get blended into one.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 10





	Two Princes, One Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Funny story I was in bed at like 11:40 and I thought about mermaid anatomy and biology for this fic and the next day I doodled some things about it.

Crown Prince Buchanan of the Northern Seagrass Kingdom does not want to be king. He is a warrior at heart, not a ruler. Despite his pleadings, his mother was adamant that he will be the king.

He still had years. The queen is healthy and in her prime.

That wasn’t reassuring. Sure, most wouldn’t dare to try and assassinate the beloved queen, but Buchanan would never take chances on the life of his mother. He made sure every guard was alert and ready before leaving to take solace in the gardens. If he bumped into anyone he didn’t particularly like, he’d spar with them. 

He swam into no one on his way to the gardens, much to his disappointment. But to his delight, his sister was swimming around in the garden instead.

“Rebecca!” Buchanan called. She turned and smiled.

“Buchanan!” she cried, and swam over. Buchanan grinned and took off his crown.

“You know, Queen Rebecca has a nicer ring to it than King Buchanan,” Buchanan said, extending the crown. Rebecca shook her head.

“You’ll make an excellent king,” she said, pushing his hand away.

“I make an excellent warrior, even with one arm,” Buchanan said, putting the crown back on his head.

“If Mother decides that you would make an excellent king, then you are to be king,” Rebecca said, her tail fins flaring slightly. Buchanan’s shoulders droop slightly.

“But I’m a fighter at heart, you know that,” Buchanan says softly. Rebecca shakes her head.

“The Queen has made you her heir. She clearly thinks you’ll be a great king.”

“I know, but I feel like it’s because of my one arm,” Buchanan said. Rebecca hissed, her gills flaring.

“You know that’s not true.” Buchanan gave her a pointed look. 

“Even if the Queen feels like I’m the best choice, I feel like everyone thinks the Queen is doing it because I’m missing an arm and think that a one-armed merwarrior is suited for the war room, not the field.” Rebecca opens her mouth to argue, but he shakes his head. “I’m going for a swim. See you later.” With that, Buchanan swims out over the gardens, letting the guards know that he was going to wander around and for them not to worry about where he was going.

He had no plan in mind on where to swim, but for some reason, he wanted to see the surface world. He’d glimpsed the surface world several times and was always envious of how free the humans were. He swims upward, using his hydrokinesis to boost him to the surface in record time. 

He saw the hull before he broke the surface, careful to be far away from it enough so that neither merman nor boat would collide, but close enough where the inhabitants wouldn’t see him.

He didn’t need to worry about that, given the festivities going on in the boat. The humans danced, preoccupied with whatever they were celebrating. His breath caught in his throat as he saw a flash of familiar blonde hair. 

Granted, the majority of the times Buchanan came up to the surface world, he would always see this human, but the more times he came up to watch, the more Buchanan felt drawn to the man or at least felt the urge to swim over to the human and initiate a conversation. He fought down that will, knowing that deep down, he could never and should never let humans know that merpeople exist. 

He still allowed himself to be entertained by these humans. Their laughter floated up from the boat and crashed down to his ears as they celebrated something.

He was so enthralled with what was going on that he failed to notice the clouds smothered the stars and rolled into a storm until a flash of lightning split the air, thunder roaring. The winds, calmer before, picked up, and Buchanan had no choice but to duck down as the ship moved and pitched around. The sea rolled, it took all of Bucky’s strength and magic to keep him from being thrown from one current into another and to keep him from hitting the boat. He’s so caught up in fighting the current that he doesn’t see when the ship is struck by lightning. Instead, he is busy distancing himself from the boat before he surfaces. 

The ship’s in pieces. Buchanan watches as he sees the fire consume the main part, while other debris float away, made visible by the flames and more visible when lightning strikes. He hears yelling from several mini-boats, the people pointing at the ocean. Buchanan did not understand what they were saying, but he gathered from their wild gesticulations that someone was in the ocean’s grip. He looks one more time to see where they’re pointing, dives down, and swims fast, aiding himself with his hydrokinesis.

And he sees the human.

The human is being pulled down by the greedy current, and Buchanan spotted a sizeable bump on his forehead, his arms reaching up as if he was trying to reach for something before the ocean grabbed him. Buchanan swims down and grasps the human in one arm, before shooting to the surface, far from the mini-ships. 

It was risky, the humans could see him, but Buchanan would be damned if he let a human drown when he had the power to help. 

He propels himself quickly to the shore, and drags the man up the beach as best as he could, given his tail and one arm. The cove is relatively secluded, which is perfect for him in the event that the humans are looking for the one he has, he can hear them coming and would be able to slip away long before they would see him. He propels the wave to get him and the human onto the beach, but it’s slightly weak, whether from sheer exhaustion or him keeping one eye on the human to make sure the chest rose and fell.

It’s taking too long. The human’s lips are turning blue but Buchanan needs him far from the surf. Growling, Buchanan digs into his power and forces a wave to wash them up further. Once the human was in a good spot out of reach of the ocean, Buchanan placed his hands on his chest to figure out how much water entered his lungs. Delicately, his fingers worked to call the water out, gently pulling it out. The man sputtered briefly once Bucky removed all the water, but fell back into unconsciousness. Summoning more water to him, Bucky set to work on healing the bump on the human’s forehead. He would stop every now and then to make sure the human was breathing.

Once the bump was gone, Buchanan set out to heal the lungs. The horizon was beginning to get lighter, but Buchanan didn’t care about that. He only cared about healing the lungs. With minimal water, he reached in and gently brushed the healing water against the walls of the lungs, chasing out any irritants and potential infections he could develop. The stars were fading when Buchanan was finished, but still the human did not wake. 

“I’m staying with you. Just until your people get back to come and find you, okay?” Buchanan murmurs to the sleeping man. Distantly, he hears someone or something crashing through the forest that lead up to the beach, but he doesn’t want to move. The man stirs slightly and Buchanan startles back, but the eyes remain closed. 

“I would give anything to know what is to be a human,” Buchanan begins to sing, “What is it like? Are you as free as I think? Do you get to run all day in the Sun?” The man’s eyes began to flicker open, but Buchanan couldn’t dwell long enough on it when he heard someone yelling through the trees.

Buchanan startles, so busy was he to sing that he forgot to keep track on how far away the humans were. His sudden movement caused the man to stir even more. Their eyes locked, and Buchanan felt a chill run through his spine. Ice blue eyes bore into his stormy grey-blue, freezing him in place for a few seconds. 

Neither man moved for a second.

The shouts were more frantic, and Buchanan heard a sound of some creature he’d never heard of. Terrified, Buchanan turned, hauled himself away from the man as fast as he could, one arm pulling while the rest of his body inched forward gracelessly, and reached his hand out to pull the water over himself. Dragging himself into the surf, Buchanan let himself be swept out to the sandbar before popping his head above the water to ensure that the human was reunited with his friends, along with four legged creatures Buchanan had never-seen-before were jumping around them. He watches as a dark skinned man and a pale skinned woman hauled him up to his feet, and shrinks back under the surf when he sees the man turning back to look at the ocean. Buchanan wanted to see those beautiful ice blue eyes one more time, but he’s already risked so much showing his face to him.

So Buchanan sinks further below and turns away from the beach, away from the humans and back to his kingdom.

<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>

Natasha and Sam hound him with questions as they help him pick his way through the forest, Steve tries to answer them the best he can, trying to stop himself from thinking about that moment, but he can’t get the man’s face out of his head. Wide storm-blue eyes set in a face framed by dark brown hair, held his gaze for a few seconds before moving away. Steve tried to remember, but he was still in the fog of coming back to consciousness and still working through understanding the words the man sang. He thinks that the man’s chest was blue, or something, or maybe it was a trick of the light - 

“Steve? Steve? Steve!” Steve startles, realizing that Natasha had asked a question and was waiting for an answer.

“Sorry, I spaced. What did you ask me?” Steve asked. Natasha and Sam stopped, and Steve did as well.

“When you went overboard, it looked like you hit your head. Yet here you are, physically fine, but mentally absent. Are you okay?” Natasha said, stepping in front of him and gripping his shoulders.

“You won’t believe me if I told you,” Steve muttered. Natasha raised a brow.

“Try me,” she challenged. Steve sighed. Nothing good came from her try-me face, especially when he couldn’t resist a challenge or that face.

“A man rescued me. And he might’ve sung to me? I was out for most of it, but I remembered darkness and him quietly singing something to me.” Steve said.

“So a man pulled you out of the sea and sang to you? That doesn’t explain why you don’t have a giant bump on your forehead.” Sam said, a brow raised. Steve sighed.

“Don’t know why I don’t have a bump, but there’s more to the story, I promise. And just as I get the energy to open my eyes, he looks like he’s about to bolt for some reason, but he stays for a second. He had such beautiful bluish eyes, but I can’t remember that well because I wasn’t fully conscious. Then I heard the tracker hounds, and he bolts. He seemed to be going in the direction of the ocean, but how? Where could he have gone? That’s why I looked back.” Steve said. Natasha and Sam glance at each other.

“Steve, there was no one on the beach with you,” Sam said, “Are you sure you’re fine?”

“I’m walking, aren’t I?” Steve snapped, irritated. He knows he saw a man, and while he had no idea where the man came from or how he doesn’t have a bump on his head, Steve can say he saw the man. 

They were silent for the rest of the way, Steve withdrawing while Sam and Natasha decided not to press on. Once Steve clammed up, it was difficult for anyone to pry him out of his shell. His mother would smile and affectionately call him her little stubborn turtle, he’d smile slightly and she’d just leave him alone until he opened back up. 

As soon as he’s back in the castle, they force him to take a relaxing bath. Steve requested that he is to be left alone, and they give him the space he wants.

Steve sinks into the water, and wonders who the man on the beach was and how he doesn’t have a bump on his head.


End file.
